Global Trade Unions Demand Sustainability From G8 Leaders

The health of the world's economy depends on the health of the world's workers, and the time is long overdue for the world's policymakers to listen to them.

This is the message trade unionists and environmentalists from around the globe wanted to send to world leaders when the former two groups met in Toronto this past weekend to demand environmental, social, and economic sustainability in advance of the G8/G20 summit. The World Conference on Sustainability was organized by two Geneva-based global trade union federations, ICEM, and IMF, and was well attended by Canadian labor activists and leaders.

The consensus of the conference was that it is impossible to achieve environmental and financial sustainability unless social sustainability is also included, with secure jobs and social safety nets. Leo Gerard, International president of the United Steelworkers, spoke about the importance of the role of organized labor in the process. "There can be no sustainability at any level unless we have a strong, active, and engaged labor movement," he said. "If [those who created the current economic crisis] can weaken or erode the labor movement, then their next step is the social justice movements. And their next step is total dominance of their ideology."

Monica Veloso, vice president of the National Confederation of Metalworkers in Brazil, stressed the importance of workers participating in the public regulation of the economy. "We need to overcome the development models that overexploit labor, destroy the environment, and create food, social, energy and even financial crises around the world. The state must play the role of regulator and director for sustainable economic development when market forces have enticed companies to protect their earnings and profit lines without thinking about the workers. Men and women workers must actively participate in the designing of public policy to guarantee lesser impacts on the environment, and must ensure that we leave wealth for future generations."

The conference created a declaration, Fighting Together -- Fighting for a Sustainable Future, aimed at G8/G20 leaders. Key recommendations in the declaration include strengthening financial, environmental and labor regulations, and ensuring that these are included in any trade agreements, along with effective enforcement mechanisms. The Declaration also called upon world leaders to implement the so-called Robin Hood tax on global financial transactions, create secure green jobs, reach a binding agreement on greenhouse gases, and to fully involve unions and civil society organizations in any bilateral or multilateral trade agreements.

The situation for workers has reached crisis levels worldwide, said delegates and attendees at the conference. According to Judith Kirton-Darling, policy advisor for the European Metalworkers' Federation, Europe has lost 10 percent of their manufacturing workforce, and youth unemployment has reached epidemic proportions.

"Immediately when the crisis hit, we lost all fixed-term and temporary agency workers -- they were the first victims," explained Kirton-Darling. "And that has created a crisis of an aging workforce. Within a very short period, we saw the average age in our industries leap 10-15 years with the loss of younger workers who were largely in precarious employment. What we're facing in Europe is the danger of a lost generation. We have about 20 percent youth unemployment across Europe, and in some countries, it's staggeringly higher and a major concern."

Ken Lewenza, president of the Canadian Auto Workers, shares Kirton-Darling's concerns. "I want to in particularly support what [Kirton-Darling] is talking about, which isn't being raised enough, and that's the young workers who are losing their jobs," he said. "And the young workers who are losing the opportunity of having gainful employment in a unionized workplace. It's a real challenge for those of us in Canada to try to deal with that consequence of this global meltdown."